Ramon’s eyes were wide as he stared at Gloria, his body completely still. Warm liquid splashed against his face, causing him to flinch and take a step back. He swallowed upon hearing his sister’s wails, her body thrashing as the chains pulled on the ballista bolts embedded deep inside her flesh.

“Quickly, heal her!”

Ramon flinched again, and his tail swiped to the side, nearly hitting the pink-eyed goat standing behind him.

“Why are you standing around in a daze?” Kozabokget said and hopped onto Ramon’s tail. Despite its movements, she easily climbed up and made her way to Ramon’s forehead. “Yes, this is scary. Yes, you might get shot too if you expose yourself, but if you don’t do anything, Gloria might die! These bolts aren’t enough to kill her, but if the humans take advantage of her weakened state, they’ll kill her without an issue.”

Ramon trembled, and his eyes rolled up to look at Kozabokget. “W-what do I do?”

“First, purify her,” Kozabokget said. “When dealing with humans, always begin with a purification. They like to apply curses to weaken things first.” Her hoof raised and stomped down, landing on Ramon’s head with a dull thud. “Purify. Now!”

Ramon’s eyes shone with a silver glow, and a white light enveloped Gloria’s body. Wisps of black mana leaked out of the ballista bolts, exiting Gloria’s body like smoke from a fire. When the black wisps stopped appearing, the light faded away, and Ramon’s eyes returned to normal. “Now what?”

“Now, you heal her,” Kozabokget said. “Those bolts are very vicious. They’re designed to enter their target easily, but exiting is a completely different matter.” As she spoke, Ramon’s eyes were already glowing silver. “They’ll tear her flesh on the way out, causing extreme bleeding. Normally, they should be leaving the bolts in to restrain her movements, but it looks like they’re being pulled out to inflict as much damage as possible.”

Gloria wailed as the white light engulfed her body. Her innards were tearing and healing repeatedly, and the ground underneath her had turned into a huge pool of sludge from the mixture of her blood with the dirt. A wild look appeared in the cursed dragon’s eyes as her front paws grabbed the ballista bolt embedded in her side. She roared as she pulled, ripping the bolt out of her body along with a huge chunk of her flesh, blood and scales splashing as they hit the ground. She lay limp and panted for a bit, but her eyes narrowed as her teeth gritted. Her body curled up, making it easier for her to grab the ballista bolt embedded in her hindleg.

“Keep healing her,” Kozabokget whispered to Ramon. “You’re doing a good job. I already told the wind to inform everyone inside the palace about what’s happening here. Your parents and grandparents will be here soon.”

Ramon didn’t say anything, but his teeth gritted as the light on his eyes intensified. The amount of mana required to heal something depended on the seriousness of the injury. Ramon’s legs trembled, and his paws curled, his claws digging into the ground as he willed for his sister’s flesh to repair itself. At that moment, six humans appeared, each one carrying a large metal tool. They stared at the thrashing cursed dragon in dismay, and two of them quickly ran to the bolts that had already been pulled out of the dragon’s body. They used the metal tools to detach the chains from the bolts before running away. “I did my share of the work!” one of them said as he sprinted, leaving his companions behind. “I’ll leave detaching the rest up to you!”

The humans stared at their fleeing companions with bitter expressions on their faces. Hadn’t they all volunteered to do this job together? Hadn’t they joked about dying together, drinking together in hell? Why were two of them fleeing now!? Luckily for them, the cursed dragon seemed too preoccupied to deal with them at the moment. Should they wait for the dragon to finish pulling out all the bolts first? They couldn’t help but curse in their minds at the Dragon Slayers for designing the bolts in such a way that the chains couldn’t be detached remotely.

“Not good,” one of the humans said, his eyes widening upon seeing Ramon. “We were tricked. Who said cursed dragons and holy dragons were supposed to be archenemies? If that’s the case, they wouldn’t be working together like this!”

“Why?” a weak voice asked. The humans turned to look at where the question had come from. The cursed dragon was staring at them with reddened eyes. “Why did you hurt me?”

The humans gulped. What exactly were they supposed to say? “We, we didn’t mean to,” one of them said and lowered his head. “A holy dragon came and told us she was going to lure out Grimmoldesser, and we had shoot him when he appeared.” The man clasped his hands together and bowed his body. “We’re terribly sorry for hurting you!”

Gloria’s vision was red as she stared at the bowing human. When she saw him through her nictitating membranes which were covered in blood, suddenly, he didn’t look so cute anymore. He didn’t have long claws or sharp teeth or venomous stingers; in fact, all his features were soft and rounded. Even the toned muscles looked squishy like padding to her. However, something had changed. Those features weren’t pleasant to look at anymore. “Go away. I don’t want to see you anymore.”

“Of course, of course,” the man said and bowed repeatedly. “Err, do you think we could remove the chains from the”—

Gloria slammed her tail against the ground, mimicking the action she had seen her Grandma Gren perform dozens of times. The bloody sludge flew into the air, splashing on the humans. Gloria roared, causing the humans’ hair to flutter backwards. “Go! Away!”

The human shut his mouth and sprinted away. Dying for the mission? Forget it! If it was possible to complete, he’d consider it, but it was clear he’d die before getting anywhere close to the ballista bolts. He didn’t mind dying, but he didn’t want to do for no reason!